Oxford Economics study on the economic contribution of the UK ports industry

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Along with partners in the Maritime UK network, the BPA has commissioned a study on the economic value and contribution of the UK ports industry and the results have now been published. The series of ports, shipping and maritime businesses studies were carried out by Oxford Economics and retrospectively examines data for 2013. The latest report has found that:

In 2013, the ports sector employed 118,200 people. Of these, 43% worked in either transport or a transport-related activity, with a further 18% employed in cargo handling.

The workers in the sector are highly productive. The sector’s labour productivity (measured as gross value added divided by employment) is £65,400 per worker. This is 1.3 times the UK economy’s average.

It is estimated that the ports sector made a £7.7 billion value-added contribution to UKGDP. To put the sector’s contribution to economic output into context, the value added it creates is greater than plastic products manufacture and repair of motor vehicles industries and nearly as large as the UK’s advertising industry.

The ports sector pays £2.0 billion in taxes, through a combination of corporation, labour and other indirect taxes such as VAT and council tax. Nearly two thirds (63%) of this revenue was generated through employee related income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

Ports source a significant proportion of the inputs of goods and services that they procure from UK suppliers, which, in turn, have their own domestic supply chains. In addition, people employed either by the ports sector or by its suppliers will spend their wages and salaries on consumer goods and services in the wider UK economy. Such effects are typically referred to as the ‘indirect’ and ‘induced’ impacts.

Including the direct, indirect and induced impacts, the ports sector is estimated to have supported 344,300 jobs in 2013, equivalent to 1 in every 94 jobs in the UK. Moreover, once these multiplier effects are accounted for, the sector supported a £19.0 billion gross value added contribution to UKGDP, equivalent to 1.2% of the economy’s output.

Inclusive of these multiplier impacts, the ports sector’s total tax contribution to the UK Exchequer was approximately £5.8 billion.

Copies of the full reports carried out under the ‘Economic Impact of the UK Maritime Services Sector’ study are listed below.